


could roses bloom - again?

by bellowbacks



Category: Supernatural
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, djinn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 12:57:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16640558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellowbacks/pseuds/bellowbacks
Summary: Dean wakes up in a universe similar to his own and yet... Not everything is as it seems.(it's a djinn, they gay keep walking)





	could roses bloom - again?

**Author's Note:**

> howdy!! this is a rewrite of something I wrote in literally 2013 because i knew i could do it justice now. it was originally 1700 words so you can see ive stretched it and extended it quite a bit! anyways i love these idiots
> 
> title from six feet under by billie elish

When Dean opened his eyes, he swore loudly. 

Of course he was sitting on his ass in a forest he had never seen before with dirt on his jeans and mud caking his shoes. He stood up and dusted off the thighs of his pants, then checked to make sure all of his weapons were on him. They weren’t, which made him frown, and neither was his phone. Awesome.

Even the knife that was concealed in the sole of his shoe was gone and his shoe had been made whole again. Only after that realization did it hit Dean that he wasn’t even wearing the same clothes he had on before. Instead of his favorite ratty old red flannel, he was now wearing a clean blue one that he didn’t recognize at all. 

Dean glanced around. It was trees all the way around, but he could see faint streetlights in the distance, so he started towards those. It wasn’t too far; within a few minutes he was stepping onto asphalt. He glanced both ways. There was a street sign a while to his right, but it was facing away from him, so he let out a long sigh and started the trek towards it. 

‘Lebanon - 2’. Dean breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was close to the bunker. He started walking, tying his flannel around his waist so he wouldn’t sweat as much. It wasn’t a long walk and he got back to the bunker within the hour. 

“Sammy,” he called once he was inside. His voice echoed against the reinforced steel walls and there was no response. 

Dean walked down the stairs quietly and grabbed the gun that was strapped to the bottom of the main library table, holding it expertly in his right hand with his left palm steadying his aim. He walked slowly through the bunker, checking every room until he came to his own, where he could hear faint rustling from inside. Dean grabbed the handle with his left hand and, after a brief pause, slammed it open and pointed the gun at his own bed. 

There was no monster in his room. 

The only living being in his room was a shirtless, dark haired man who was laying on one of Dean’s faded old t-shirts and was tucked under Dean’s sheets. His back was done over in black ink, wings curling out from his shoulder blades and down along the backs of his muscular arms. Dean kept the gun aloft as he slowly circled the bed, finally lowering it when he saw the man’s face. 

It was Castiel curled up in Dean’s bed. The creases in his face were smoothed over in sleep and his hand was curled around the edge of the comforter. Dean sighed and set the gun on his bedside table beside the photos of him, Mom, and Sam and the half empty bottle of whiskey that lived there. 

“Cas,” Dean said softly and tugged on the comforter. Cas rolled closer and smushed his face into the pillow. Dean couldn’t help but look at him and how at ease he looked in sleep. It was so much more peaceful here and now than, well, at literally any other time for Team Free Will. 

“Dean,” Cas murmured in his sleep. Dean’s stomach flipped and he pulled on the comforter again, this time harder. If Cas didn’t wake up right now, Dean wasn’t going to be able to hold himself accountable for his actions, as all he wanted to do was get in bed and hold Cas as tight as possible. 

Luckily, Cas woke up. He blinked his eyes open slowly and then his patented frown creased itself back into his forehead. 

“Dean? Why aren’t you…” he said and swiped his hand over the clear spot in the bed. “C’mere.” Cas reached out and grabbed Dean’s hand, tugging him closer. Dean jerked his hand back, heat running through his arm. Cas frowned and grabbed for the shirt he was laying on, then pulled it on quickly.

“Uh, what?” he asked, cocking his head to the side and stepping back. “I… I woke up in a forest, like two miles away,” he said, looking Cas over. This didn’t seem like his Cas, but he could see the edge of his anti-possession tattoo peeking out from the too-big neckline of Dean’s shirt, so it wasn’t a demon.

Cas frowned and rolled over onto his back, still sprawled out and seemingly incredibly comfortable in Dean’s bed. “I mean, you went out to meet up with another hunter at a bar last night,” Cas said, his eyes as he woke up quickly reverting back to their usual quizzical expression. “When did you come back?”

“Just now,” Dean said and sat on the edge of the bed. “I walked back from wherever I woke up, I must’ve… gotten pretty smashed, hm.”

Cas cocked his head to the side. “You don’t remember?” he asked, to which Dean nodded. “Here, I’ll…” Cas said and then leaned over to the bedside table. He tugged the drawer open and pulled out a bottle of advil, but that wasn’t what made Dean stop and look twice. Also inside the dresser was a huge box of condoms, a tube of lube, and-

Dean pulled his wide eyes away as Cas handed him the bottle and then moved over to the side of the bed Dean didn’t sleep on, drawing attention for the first time to the fact that there was another bedside table beside him. Cas grabbed a half-empty glass of water, which he handed to Dean alongside the painkillers. 

“Take those and get some rest,” Cas said. His normally low voice was even grumblier than usual and Dean watched his adam’s apple move underneath the stubbled throat that Dean wanted to sink his teeth into. He took the cup and the pills and swallowed them quickly even though he didn’t have much of a headache. 

“Where’s Sam?” Dean asked once they were down. Cas leaned against the headboard and Dean could see for the first time that he wasn’t wearing pajama pants, just a pair of boxers with cats and yarn balls on them. He bit down on his tongue so hard he tasted blood, but if he smiled and stared at Cas’ crotch, this probably wouldn’t end well, even excluding the fact that Cas had, for some reason, slept in his bed. 

Cas frowned deeply and looked Dean over. “Are you sure you’re okay? Sam is out with Charlie on that hunt in Arkansas,” he said, “They’ll be back late today.”

Dean felt his breath catch in his throat. “Charlie?” he managed, “She’s… She’s here?” Images of her body flashed through his head, bloody and tossed aside like a rag doll. His chest felt tight.

“Of course she is,” Cas responded, “she and Jo are staying with us for a little while. They’re in the guest room? Jo comes back in a few days?” He shifted forward and gripped Dean’s jaw. Cas dragged his face closer and peered into each of his green eyes quickly and then let go, leaving him just inches from Cas’ face. “You should rest, Dean. You seem… off.”

Dean swiped his tongue over his lips, very intentionally didn’t look at Cas’ mouth, and nodded. Charlie AND Jo? What was the world trying to pull on him today?

“Yeah, that’ll probably help,” he lied. “Uh, I can take the other guest room,” he said as he stood up and turned to get clean clothes from his dresser. 

Before he could move, though, Cas caught his hand and didn’t let go. “Why would you do that? There’s room for two here, like always,” he said and slid to one side, leaving room for Dean to settle into bed. 

Dean, to say the least, was completely lost. 

On the other hand, who was he to question it? He had been suppressing his feelings for Cas for years and now that he had this chance, who was he to question it? It wasn’t a good plan, but Cas’ hair was a little overgrown and shaggy and his breath smelled like sleep and mint. The hair at the nape of Cas’ neck and right above his ears was curling slightly and screaming at Dean to touch it. 

So, Dean changed his clothes. He put on a t-shirt and pajama pants and slid into the bathroom to brush his teeth, splash water on his face, and have a minor freak out, and then he rejoined Cas in his bedroom. 

The lights had been turned off while he was in the bathroom, so he carefully stepped forward until his knee brushed the comforter and Dean could hesitantly slide himself into his side of the bed without disturbing Cas, facing away from him. 

As soon as he was in the bed, though, he was being touched with calloused fingers and pulled closer and closer until his back was flush with Cas’ warm chest and his hairy legs were tugging Dean’s closer and Cas’ arms were wrapping around Dean’s middle, pulling him even closer. A soft puff of air touched the back of Dean’s neck and he felt his breath catch in his throat. 

God, he was fucked. 

-

Dean didn’t get much sleep, but just being held by Cas did wonders for his psyche. By the time Sam and Charlie returned from their hunt, Dean was completely relaxed and fluid. There was no way that this was real, so he had decided to let himself have this dream he was stuck in. At least he could have it this one time.

“Good morning,” Cas whispered against Dean’s skin as they both heard the bunker door open and Sam call out for them. Dean couldn’t help but smile. 

“Mornin’,” he responded and turned his head to the side until he could see Cas more. “We should go see how the hunt went.”

“Mmm, in a second,” Cas murmured and moved, releasing Dean for a moment, and then pressed him into the mattress. 

He had a wolfish half smile on his face that Dean found more enrapturing and arousing than most things he had ever laid eyes on, and then-

And then-

And then Cas was kissing him. It was everything Dean hadn’t allowed himself to want for years but everything he had dreamed of, hot and scratchy and passionate-

And then Cas pulled away.

“Let’s go see Sam and Charlie,” he said and slid off Dean and out of the bed. Speechless and half hard, Dean watched Cas dig through Dean’s dresser until he found the sweatpants he wanted. Dean shamelessly stared at Cas’ ass until it was covered and he was heading out the door, gesturing for Dean to come with. 

Dean took a long breath and got out of bed. If this wasn’t real, going back to what was reality was gonna suck.

-

“Hey,” Sam called a soon as Dean and Cas walked out into the main room of the bunker. “You two seem comfortable,” he commented and threw his bag down onto the table. A smaller figure stepped out from behind him with a smile on her face and her hair pulled back in a ponytail. 

Dean’s heart broke. The emotional whiplash he was gonna get from this was gonna suck, huh? Even the good emotions were connected to the idea of losing these things again soon. 

“How was the hunt?” Cas asked. Sam started talking about it, but Dean just watched Charlie unpack her weapons from a duffel. She looked just like how he remembered her but now with a shallow cut across her cheek. 

“Hey, Charlie,” Dean managed. His voice was hoarse and he pulled her into a hug. She let out a quiet surprised noise but hugged back. 

“Hey, doof. I was only gone for a few days, you act like I died and came back,” she joked against Dean’s shoulder. 

Dean huffed out a weak laugh. She had no idea. “Let me get your cheek closed up,” he said and pulled away. He grabbed the first aid kid from one of the bookshelves and pulled out the box of butterfly tape. As he disinfected the cut, he tuned into what Sam was talking about. 

“Anyways, it wasn’t a shapeshifter at all,” he was saying, talking animatedly with his hands, “it was a djinn.”

Dean’s head spun and he paused for a second before applying the first butterfly. Charlie was still under his hands as he quickly fixed her up, and then he let himself think. A djinn would make sense, but it still was a lot to consider. 

His deepest desire was Cas? Dean would’ve assumed Charlie, Jo, and his other family coming back to be a part of the deal, but Cas? He had Cas. Cas as a brother was better than no Cas at all, but… 

Yeah, fine, Dean was in love with Cas. 

His deepest desire, though… 

“You good, Dean?” Charlie asked as she combed her fingers through her long hair. 

Dean gave her a fake smile. “Yeah, of course. I woke up a little off, I think I drank too much last night,” he managed with a shrug. Charlie nodded. 

“Yeah, sometimes it be like that, y’know? Feel better,” she said and clapped him on the shoulder before standing, saying something about going to shower, and then she left. 

“I brought dinner,” Sam said and nudged a paper bag towards Dean and Cas. “Enjoy. I’m going to bed, don’t wake me unless it’s world ending.” Sam clapped Dean and Cas both on the shoulder before walking past and towards his room. 

Dean peered into the bag to see a pile of cheeseburgers basically oozing grease. 

Maybe he could stay for a little bit longer. 

-

A little bit longer became a week far more quickly than Dean had anticipated.

Every time Dean thought ‘huh, I should probably go back to my real world with Real Sam and Real Cas’, he saw Charlie and Jo alive and sitting together on the loveseat watching a Star Trek movie (who would’ve thought that those two would- or even could- end up together?), or Sam making dinner and handing him a cold beer instead of a case, or, worst of all, Cas kissing him. It was torture and heaven all at once and Dean felt his heart clench every time he thought of leaving. 

“I need to go,” he finally said one morning. Cas was laying beside him with his head resting on Dean’s shoulder and it was everything Dean had ever wanted. It broke his heart to leave. 

Cas lifted his head and looked at Dean. “Hm?” he mumbled and blinked sleepily at Dean. It made him feel sick. 

“I have to go, Cas,” Dean said again, quieter now. “This isn’t real.”

Cas propped himself up on his elbow. “Sorry?” he asked. His voice was rough and Dean could almost feel his stubble scratching against his jaw just from the sound of it. 

“This isn’t where I belong. I’m being held by a djinn,” he said, not meeting Cas’ eyes. He stared past him at where the wallpaper was beginning to peel right at the edge. 

“A djinn,” Cas repeated. Dean nodded. 

“This isn’t real, you’re not real. I have to go back to my Sam and my Cas,” Dean said. He took a long breath and finally met Cas’ blue eyes. They were more grey than blue in the slow, thick evening light, but they showed sadness plain and true, and it broke Dean’s heart. “I’m sorry,” he said. His voice caught in his throat and he closed his eyes. 

“I love you,” Cas said quietly. “I always have. I will help you get home if it is what you want.” 

Cas slid out of bed and changed quickly into his regular attire, which, in this universe, seemed to be dark jeans or slacks, a button up shirt, and then a too big ugly sweater that he got at Goodwill all underneath his classic trench coat. Dean watched him, taking in the last time he could stare at his ass or sweep his eyes over the tattoo covering most of his back. 

Dean followed quickly, putting on the same clothes he had woken up in. They were clean now, no longer caked in mud. 

“Do you know where the djinn’s hideout is?” Cas asked. He didn’t look at Dean as they walked out to the map table, and he didn’t look at Dean as he spread out a map of the nearby area to study. His voice was lacking the newfound softness that Dean had come to love. His body language was tense and Dean felt horrible. 

It would be so easy just to stay, Dean thought for the thousandth time, but his resolve was steely even though his heart was in two. 

He cleared his throat and pointed to some woods. “This is where I woke up, so probably around here,” he said. “I walked down this highway until I hit Lebanon.”

Cas nodded. “Let’s go, then,” he said. He grabbed the keys for the Impala from where Dean had set them down on the table and walked towards the door. Dean watched him go for a second and then followed. This sucked. This didn’t make Dean feel morally better at all. 

Cas drove. 

Dean didn’t play music. 

When they got to the forest, Cas got out flashlights and weapons. 

“Silver knife,” he said and dug two longer blades out, “and lamb’s blood.” There was a mason jar tucked securely inside of a burlap bag full of thick, red liquid that Dean knew from experience smelled pretty bad. 

Dean accepted the knife silently and quickly dipped it in the blood. Cas did the same and then tucked the mason jar into his jacket pocket. 

Then they were off. Dean and Cas started walking through the woods, initially trying to track Dean backwards, but his tracks were too long gone by then. Nothing seemed familiar, and Dean started to worry that maybe he was wrong.

That was, until he saw it. 

“Here,” he said and stopped walking. There was a huge tree in the middle of an almost perfectly round clearing that had an indentation on one side where a human could fit securely in between the large, branching roots. “That’s where I woke up.”

Cas shined his flashlight on the indent and then past the tree, stopping on a small cottage that Dean knew for sure wasn’t there when he woke up. Cas didn’t say anything and neither did Dean, but they both started towards the cottage in step. Dean adjusted his grip on the knife as they grew closer and met Cas’ eyes for the first time since telling him this. They were shining and blue even in the darkness. 

Dean clicked his flashlight off and tucked it in his pocket. He jerked his head at the door and held the knife aloft. Cas paused for a second and then yanked it open. 

Inside were two humanoid creatures with beady eyes and pale faces covered in tattoos that immediately bared their fangs at Dean and Cas and started rushing forward. Dean rushed forward too, giving Cas space to enter behind him.

His first thrust with the knife hit only air as the djinn stepped to the side and grabbed his arm, baring its teeth, and tried to turn the weapon back on Dean’s stomach. Dean dropped the knife and caught it in his other hand then went for a backward stab, but the second djinn caught his arm before he made contact. 

Cas grabbed the djinn’s arm until it let go of Dean, then buried the knife in its stomach quickly. Dean was still struggling to break free of the first one and as soon as he did, he switched the knife back to his right hand and tried for a stab again. 

The djinn didn’t anticipate it fast enough and fell to the ground once the knife dug into its stomach, dead. 

Dean started to turn to Cas to check on him, but it was then that he fell unconscious. 

-

“Dean,” a voice said. “Dean, wake up.” The voice was getting more desperate but it let out a sigh of relief as Dean blinked open his crusty eyes. 

“Sammy,” he managed to wheeze. His ribs were sore and his wrists were on fire. “I think it’s a djinn,” Dean said and quirked the corner of his split lips up into a smile. 

Sam rolled his eyes and helped Dean to his feet. “Cas is already awake, he’s recovered a little quicker than you,” Sam said. Dean flicked his eyes to the right where he saw a flash of beige and saw Cas, covered in blood but still the same ex-angel as always. His stomach twisted in two and he wanted nothing more than to reach out to him. That was just in a dream, though. That wasn’t real. 

“Cas was under too,” Dean groaned. 

“Yeah, he was caught an hour or two before you were,” Sam explained as he helped Dean limp towards the car. 

“Shit,” Dean hissed as he slid into the passenger seat. Cas was quiet as he got into the back seat, far less beat on than Dean felt at least. Dean twisted his neck as much as he could to get a glimpse at the other man. “What was your world like, Cas?” he asked, trying to pull off a cool guy smirk. He knew it probably looked more like a bloody grimace, but like, whatever. The thought that counts and all that.

Cas shrugged and then winced. He reached up and touched his shoulder, took a breath, and then spoke. “A lot like this one,” he said. His voice sent a spike of want through Dean. 

It sure was going to be harder to hide this now, huh? Now that he knew what it was like to kiss Cas? To hold him? Damn. 

-

When they got back to the bunker, Dean and Cas didn’t make it much further in than the chairs at the library table while Sam dug through the medical supplies to get them fixed up. 

“What was yours?” Cas asked Dean, his voice clearer than before now that he had been awake longer. 

Dean raised his eyebrows. “My what?”

“Your djinn world.”

“Oh, uh, it’s about the same as last time I was got by a djinn,” he lied. Cas squinted at him. “You were there, though. This time, I mean,” Dean added and lolled his head to the side, hoping to pull off ‘cool and casual’ and not ‘I’m desperately in love with you’. 

“I liked mine,” Cas said. He didn’t add more, so Dean just looked at him expectantly. “I was… We were here, in the bunker. We lived here,” he said quietly. “Me, you, and Sam. Hunters stayed with us when they were travelling. I…”

Dean didn’t speak, just watched across the table as Cas looked down at the wood. 

“I was human, like I am,” Cas admitted. “Even in my perfect world, I am human.”

Dean felt the corners of his lips quirk up in a smile. When Cas was human, he got to see him more. That was a selfish reason to like human Cas, but… But. 

“I had this tattoo,” Cas said quickly. “Of wings. My wings. On my back.” He eyed Dean. 

Dean took a long breath as he realized. There was no way… There was no way that in both Dean’s and Cas’ perfect reality Cas had the exact same tattoo. 

“Was I there?” he asked, his voice steadier than he had been expecting. 

Cas was still, then he nodded. “You were,” he said. His eyes met Dean’s and neither of them blinked or looked away.

Dean took a deep breath. “Was Jo? Charlie?” he added. His voice was gruff and he knew. Cas knew. 

Cas slowly nodded. 

“Cas,” Dean whispered, and then he couldn’t stand it anymore. 

Within seconds, Dean had scrambled to his feet, completely ignored his pain, and rushed over to where Cas was seated. He leaned down over Cas. 

“Please,” Cas said, his voice drawn tight and thin, and Dean kissed him. 

This kiss wasn’t like the kiss in the djinn universe. This kiss was electric, it was heaven and hell meeting and archangels clashing blades with princes of hell, God and Darkness and Lucifer’s energy funneled into one press of lips. 

Then, Sam cleared his throat. 

Dean groaned and fell to one knee next to Cas’ chair.

“I’ll, uh, go,” Sam managed. “Use protection.” Dean heard him scurry off, but all he could think about was how close he was to Cas. 

“I love you,” Cas said as soon as Sam was gone. “I’ve been… I’ve known for years, almost since Hell, I love you.”

Dean grabbed him and kissed him again, hard. “I know,” he managed, and then he kissed him again.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! im finally almost caught up (im on s13 ep18 right now eek) for the first time since 2014 so stay tuned for some episode codas etc probably soonish, also a big au is in the works so be ready for that bad boy 
> 
> my spn twitter is @fallencastiel come talk to me about jack kline and charlie bradbury


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